"Do look out! You swished your tail against those iris blossoms."
"Excuse me! I didn't mean to, Princess Kiku." Tatsu was embarrassed.
"I'm not a princess," protested Kiku with a laugh, but she was flattered at Tatsu's mistake, and good-natured again.
"It's just that the flowers must look their best tonight," Kiku went on, "because it's the night of the opening of the new garden. You're just in time for the execution."
An execution? This was shocking news.
"Whose execution?" asked Tatsu.
"The chief gardener's execution," Kiku answered. "His name is Gushi, and he's the one who laid out this beautiful new garden."
"What's the matter with the garden? Why should you execute him for that?"
"Nothing's wrong with the garden. That's just the reason," explained Kiku. "My father had it made for me, and it turned out to be the loveliest garden in all Japan. My father is having Gushi executed so he can't lay out another one like it for anyone else."
Tatsu kept trying to look fierce with his big sharp teeth and his purple whiskers and his yellow scales, but he had a gentle heart. He didn't see how anyone so pretty as Kiku could be so cruel. He didn't know that she was a spoiled maiden, who had always had her own way.
"How are you going to execute him?" Tatsu asked.
"We have our own executioner for this sort of thing," said Kiku. "His name is Hachi. He'll take one of these iris leaves, turn it into a fine, sharp sword, and cut the gardener's head off."
"Where will he do it?"
"We've chosen a charming place for it," declared Kiku. "First you go along the path where all the stone lanterns are. They're lighted tonight especially for the execution. Then at the end of the path you come to a turtle-back bridge crossing the stream. Hachi the executioner will stand on that bridge and hold the sword and cut the gardener's head off."
The more Tatsu heard about all this, the worse it sounded.
"When does all this happen?" he asked.
"As soon as you can just see the moon over the wishing-well."
Kiku answered all Tatsu's questions so willingly because it never occurred to her that the dragon might try to stop the execution.
But Tatsu was thinking very hard inside his green and yellow head.
Here was his first chance to be a hero! He mustn't fail!
He made another low bow to Kiku and started on his slithery way to find the wishing-well.
The word wishing-well scared him a little. The wizard balloon man had warned him: "Watch out for moats and wishing-wells!" At least, he'd crossed the moat without getting his tail wet! He'd think of some way to keep from falling in the well!
The stone lanterns lighted Tatsu's way along the bank of the stream till he came to the wishing-well near the turtle-back bridge.
Most turtle-back bridges are made of stones shaped like turtles, but this bridge was really made of big old turtles who stuck their backs out of the water.
As soon as the nearest turtle saw the dragon, he gave a relieved sigh that made the bridge shake like an earthquake and sent little ripples far out into the stream.
"Greetings, dragon," cried the bridge-turtle, "you're just in time to help us out. Gushi the gardener, who made us into a bridge, is in serious trouble, and we can't help him by ourselves."
"I'll do anything I can, but..." Tatsu stopped because the bridge-turtle went right on talking and wasn't listening to him.
"We big turtles have had nothing to do for hundreds of years," he was explaining, "and we were bored. When Gushi the gardener came along and offered us this chance to hold up our backs and make a bridge, we were glad to be useful. But this morning the terrible executioner came and planned to execute the gardener on this very spot. We don't know what to do. We have to obey Gushi's last words to us, 'Whatever happens, stay here and make a bridge.' Now that you have come, you can touch the water of the wishing-well and say a wish to save Gushi the gardener at the same time. Will you?"
"Touch the water of the wishing-well!" These were scary words to Tatsu. He couldn't forget the wizard's warning. But if that was the only way he could rescue Gushi, he'd just have to take the risk.
"I'll do whatever you say," he promised the bridge-turtle, but his tinhorn voice wobbled a little.
He hardly felt like slithering any more. He just hitched himself up to the edge of the wishing-well to rest till he could see the moon over it.
Just as the moon rose, he saw a procession coming up the path between the lighted stone lanterns.
It was a somber line of figures. First, Tatsu saw Gushi the gardener in his dark blue coat and tight, dark trousers, walking to meet his death sentence, and scarcely able to walk at all, since his eyes were tightly blindfolded. Indeed, he would not have been able to follow the path if Hachi the executioner, just behind him, hadn't kept prodding him with an iris leaf, almost as sharp as a sword.
The executioner in his long dark robe was a fiercely frowning creature, savage enough to scare any dragon, even one who had been around much longer than Tatsu.
Next came the Daimyo, very dignified in his ceremonial black robe.
With him walked Kiku, holding tight to her father's hand. Her blue and gold kimono and her butterfly-sash were the only bright spots in the gloomy procession.
When the executioner came to the well, he paid no attention to Tatsu sitting there. He reached his hand down into the well so that he touched the water with the leaf.
"Change into a sword with blade as sharp as a flame," he said sternly, and waved the iris leaf, which immediately became a sharp-edged sword.
Tatsu knew he'd have to hurry.
He let his tail down till it touched the cool water in the depths of the well.
Just as Hachi lifted the sword to strike the gardener's neck, Tatsu spoke.
"Change to a leaf again," he gasped. As he turned his head to watch whether the magic would work, he lost his balance and fell completely into the well.
"Oh," cried Kiku, "the poor dragon! We must get him out before he drowns."
Kiku had never felt sorry for anyone before. The Daimyo was so used to giving Kiku her own way that he didn't stop to be surprised that she was trying to help someone.
"Save him, executioner," ordered the Daimyo.
Hachi the executioner, who had been looking forward to wielding his sword, would have liked to delay, but he knew the Daimyo demanded instant obedience of all his retainers. With hardly a moment's hesitation, Hachi leaned over the well and let down the iris leaf—only a leaf again now—to the dragon. Tatsu was just able to open his mouth and hold onto the leaf with his teeth.
With the Daimyo's eye upon him, Hachi the executioner tried to pull Tatsu out of the well, but he couldn't do it alone.
Gushi the gardener forgot he was going to be executed. He hastily yanked off the blindfold and put his arms around the hateful executioner to help pull, but the two of them couldn't pull Tatsu out.
The Daimyo forgot he was a Daimyo. He put his arms around Gushi to help pull, but the three of them couldn't pull Tatsu out.
Finally Kiku ran over and put her arms around her father to help. They pulled and tugged, and tugged and pulled, and finally Tatsu came unstuck and they got him out of the well.
He lay on the ground beside the well, soggy and muddy. When he tried to talk, he could only cough hoarsely. When he tried to get up and